In the ordinary course of performing dental work upon a patient, a dentist may use as many as half a dozen drill bits and/or burs to make different kinds of cuts, holes and seats for inlays and/or bridges and to effect the smoothing of undesired rough edges, scarps, points, etc. Since these operations seldom result in immediate damage to the drill bit or bur, these instruments can be used again and again, either on the same patient, or on different patients. However, because the human mouth can be a breeding ground or repository for bacteria and viruses, a drill bit or bur, after being used on one patient's mouth, should not be used in the mouth of another patient without having first been carefully autoclaved. This has become particularly important with the possibility that acquired immune deficiency (AIDS) viruses can be passed from one patient to another through use of the same dental instruments upon successive patients, where such instruments have not been thoroughly autoclaved.
However, because dental drill bits and burs are normally quite small, providing suitable means for handling drill bits and burs for and during the autoclaving process, has long been a problem and various inventors have attempted to provide devices for this purpose, as evidenced by the patents to M. W. Dietz, U.S. Pat. No. 3,092,443; M. R. Genis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,894; D. H. Kazen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,830; A. Nisii, U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,060; T. H. McKelvey, U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,395; C. A. Brewer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,199; M. R. Rouse, U.S. Pat. No. 5,006,066; and S. Castellini, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,858.
While the inventors of each of these patents have addreseed the matter of providing a suitable container in different ways, none of them appears to provide all the desired features and for all of the functional requirements for an autoclavable container for dental burs and drill bits. Among these requirements and desired features are:
1) Convenience in inserting and removing the burs and/or bits;
2) Securing the actual holding receptacle in such a manner as to prevent any possible spilling out of any of the burs or bits;
3) Providing for free flow for the steam or liquid in the autoclave in and around the container burs and bits for minimum retention of heat by and in the container after the autoclaving process;
4) Convenience in securing the container before insertion in the autoclave;
5) Convenience in removing the burs and bits after the autoclaving process;
6) Minimizing the size of the container; and
7) Minimizing the cost of manufacturing and assembling the components of the container.